What is a Market Segment?

A market segment refers to people that are grouped together for marketing purposes. This group generally has shared characteristics that make them respond similarly to a message or product.

Before any marketing materials are created, you should have a clear idea of who your market segment is. The needs and lifestyles of your market segment should all be taken into consideration. By doing this, you can alter your marketing materials to really speak to your audience, and prevent wasting precious marketing dollars on those who are uninterested or irrelevant.

Here’s how to start.

When discussing market segmentation, four subsections are usually employed:

Geographic- This refers to the geographic area in which your market segment resides (or spends the majority of its time). It can be as small as a city, or it can be global. For example, for a local, independent bookstore, spending money marketing to their entire state may be a waste. Instead, they would want to define their market segment to those who live in the area. You may also want to take into consideration the language or semantics when defining your segment.

Demographic- Age, gender, education, family, income, race, life stage and occupation all come under the demographic subsection.

Behavioural- The behavioural segmentation mainly refers to how the audience interacts with technology, how they make purchases and where they receive information from. This can help you to personalize your content so that the audience receives it best. If your audience spends more time on Instagram and TikTok, you’ll want to cater to those behaviours.

Psychographic- This focuses of the audiences psychological attributes, such as their personality, values, attitudes, interests and opinions. This can be difficult to define, but can be incredibly valuable. By using psychographic data in your marketing strategy you can gain beneficial insights such as consumers likes, dislikes, wants and needs. However, psychographic data can be quite personal and difficult to collect.

Larry’s top tip:

To really gain a clear picture of your market segment, create a profile of an average person within your market segment. Include their name, age, location, profession, likes and dislikes, what they do in their free time, which social platforms they use. Go through each of the subsections above and be as detailed as possible. You can even add an image of what you think this person would look like. When creating content try to think “What would “Sandra” think of this?” or “How would this be perceived by “Mark”?”. By doing this you be able to both create cohesive messaging, and really tap into your audience.

For more help on creating your market segmentation, or to learn how The Irresistible Company can benefit you, reach out to us at info@irresistible-company.com